Riflemen had long realised that a cylindrical bullet would perform more efficiently in a rifle than a ball of like weight. They made many experiments to find one which could be easily loaded without distorting it by ramming, as occurred with both the Baker and the Brunswick, and which would expand on firing to be rotated by the rifling. Some of their attempts are worth mentioning.

In 1823 Captain John Norton of the 34^th Regiment provided the obvious solution. He took a cylindro-conoidal bullet slightly smaller in diameter than the bore down which it could be easily slid for loading, then hollowed out the base so it would expand into the rifling on firing. But the Board of Ordnance, having found it worked perfectly, rejected it on the grounds that spherical missiles were the only types acceptable for military purposes. And most members of the Board were Gunners!

The real reason for the rejection was that in the services 'progress' was a rude word. Officers lived in an atmosphere of hidebound tradition an unreasoning resistance to change, rank and file existed in one of apathy, fear and ignorance.